International SOS experience and feedback
 

Wondering what experiences your or colleagues may have has with International SOS or that of their competitors.

Look forward to your posts

Save Our Souls?
Secretary Of State?
Some Other Sucker?

http://www.internationalsos.com/en/

This rather. Veyr highly regarded as far as I've heard. I knew a guy who worked there many years back - and he was highly educated and committed.

My company uses them.

Every time I book travel with my company agent, I get an SOS email from them that is about 5 pages long with detailed info about my destination. They describe EVERYTHING...from climate and weather, to health concerns, to political issues, riots, to how to greet people in a business setting: do I bring a present, do I give a business card with both hands, do I bow, etc.

Then, while you are at your destination, and up until you leave, you will get notified of any major events: airport closures, transportation strikes, volcanoes about to explode and the number of your airline so you can book it out of there ASAP.

It is a nice feature - not sure how much it costs to a large company.

Moderator action
 

Thread trasferred to TravelBuzz because there is no miles/points aspect.

Have had some experience with them. Definitely a legit operation.

We used them several times and have had nothing but good experiences with them. I got quite sick in Zambia about 6 years ago. We got them on the phone and they put me on with a doctor in the US to discuss symptoms. He then got me through to one of their doctors in South Africa. We discussed options and they found me a local doc that had gone to med school in the US and had a lab facility so that he could test for malaria (which is what they were concerned about). Turned out I was okay and the local doc effectively treated me. We were also in touch with them, getting advice for some less serious issues in Cambodia on another trip. Again, we were able to talk to docs, get advice and they gave us options of going to a clinic they had in Hanoi, the next stop on our itinerary if the problem hadnt improved by then.

I remember reading about this at the time too:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/...acuation_x.htm

When the war started in 2006 in the middle east International SOS got their clients out of Beirut, even before the US government evacuations if I remember correctly.

so more than just evac like medjetassist
and cool to hear about security evac, only seen that for travel providers like abercrombie & kent

would be nice if they simply published pricing..

membership needed? or pay a fee for service?

When we last used them you could either join per trip or pay a yearly subscription. I haven't looked in the last few years.